BILLINGS, Mont. – Entering the final week of the regular season with just two games remaining, the Montana State University Billings women's basketball team is still in the thick of a hard battle near the top of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference standings.
 
The Yellowjacket women are currently in a three-way tie for third place in the conference standings with the team they most recently played and the squad they are focusing on facing next; Seattle Pacific University and Simon Fraser University. All three teams are currently 10-6 in the GNAC and each member of the trio still has an outside chance of catching second-place Western Washington University who is currently 12-4.
 
The Yellowjackets are currently coming off a heart-breaking 70-56 loss to the Falcons at home that saw MSUB fall behind by as many as 22 at one point before mounting a furious comeback to tie the game in the second half. But SPU was able to stretch the lead back out and break their first two-game losing skid of the season to be able to head to the conference tournament.
 
MSUB heads into the home-stretch of their 2011-12 campaign 10^th in the West Region and boasting an 18-9 overall record that includes the 10-6 mark in the league. The Yellowjackets have a crucial pair of games to end the season as they will first face the Clan of Simon Fraser on Thursday, Feb. 23 and then host the Vikings of second-place Western Washington on Saturday, Feb. 25. Tipoff in both games is slated for 7 p.m.
 
The Yellowjackets have not suffered consecutive losses since the end of November and beginning of December when they dropped four-straight games that included losses at Western Washington and at Simon Fraser.
 
Since that time, MSUB has gone 15-5 including going on a pair of four-game winning streaks.
 
MSUB is currently shooting .373 from the field as a team that includes a 32.7% performance from beyond the three-point arc. The Yellowjackets have made 208 total three-pointers while their opposition has only connected on 101.
 
Sophomore guard Bobbi Knudsen is currently on the cusp of breaking into the top-10 in three different offensive categories in MSUB's record books and has already established herself in another.
 
The Malta High School product is just 36 points shy of catching Kelli Kenyon's 1986-87 season mark of 503 total points which is currently 10^th all-time for most points in a single season. She is also just 19 made field-goals shy of matching Alira Carpenter's 2006-07 total of 196 field goals made and just 12 steals shy of Tera Silvius' mark of 62 steals in a season.
 
Knudsen is already 10^th for field goals attempted in a season with 433 and is just three shy of catch Megan Mason-Dickerson for ninth.
 
The Yellowjackets' starting point guard is currently averaging a league second-best 17.3 points per game and boasts a team-best shooting percentage of .409. She is currently in the top-10 in five other categories including third in minutes played (32.8), fifth for assists per game (3.8, 103 total), six for steals per game (1.9, 50 total), eighth for free throw percentage (.789) and ninth with 42 total three-pointers (1.6 per game).
 
Freshman distance-shooter Quinn Peoples is also on the verge of breaking into the record books as she is just four three-pointers away from catching Kami Malnaa's total of 61 treys in the 1999-2000 season for 10^th all-time. She is also just five treys away from catching Amy Winslow and Joan Langford who are tied for eighth all-time with 62 total three pointers in a single season.
 
A native of Butte, Mont., Peoples is currently averaging 10.2 points per game and leads the Yellowjackets with 57 total three pointers. Her .328 shooting percentage beyond the arc has her third behind Knudsen and senior guard Kalli Stanhope who is currently up to sixth all-time for career three-pointers made (138) and three-pointers attempted (365). Stanhope is currently ninth in the conference with a .381 shooting percentage from three-point range.
 
Under the hoop, Janiel Olson is currently fifth in the conference with an average of 8.5 rebounds per game while fellow freshman Monica Grimsrud has used her size and volleyball-vertical to swat away 17 total blocked shots, which is a ninth-best in the conference at 0.7 per game.
 
As a team, the Simon Fraser Clan are currently shooting at a .415 clip from the field, but are only hitting 27.7% of their looks from three-point range. The Clan, who are coming off a home-loss to Northwest Nazarene, is led in their scoring by Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe, Kristina Collins and Chelsea Reist who all average double-digit points per game.
 
Raincock-Ekunwe leads the conference with 18.7 points per game off 448 total points as well as a .567 shooting performance from the field. She is also currently averaging a double-double as brings down an average of 13.5 rebounds per game.
 
Collins leads the team with 105 assists while average 11.3 points per game which is just ahead of Reist's 10.7 points per game.
 
Western Washington is currently in the midst of a three-game winning-streak. The Vikings are currently out-scoring their opponents 73.3-64.4 while shooting .455 from the field as a team.
 
WWU is led in scoring by Corinn Waltrip and Kristin Schramm's 12.5 points per game. Waltrip is currently shooting a team-best .437 from the field and leads the team with 92 assists while Schramm is leading the team from three-point range with a .404 shooting percentage beyond the arc.